ASHEVILLE, NC -- Researchers at NOAA's National Climatic Data Center published a new report Wednesday implicating the Haiti earthquake as a causal factor in the development of this season's record-shattering winter storms.
The "snowglobe effect" may explain the winter storms of 2010.
"We call it the snowglobe effect," explained Dr. Richard Harris, a climatologist involved in the study. "The powerful earthquake in Haiti effectively 'shook up' the atmosphere, which caused a disturbance that developed into the severe winter storms that wreaked havoc upon a large swath of the United States this season. We based our research on data collected from the U.S. Geological Survey and our own climate models developed from nearly eighty years of observations."
Dr. Harris demonstrated the phenomenon using a scale model of a neighborhood encased in a fluid-filled glass ball with thousands of tiny, white particles. "When you shake the globe, you can see the disturbance in the fluid atmosphere inside. The particles of snow are kicked up into the simulated sky creating a blizzard similar to what we saw in the recent nor'easter. They are then redeposited in drifts throughout the environment."
Kevin Townshend, a collaborating researcher at the National Center for Atmospheric Research in Colorado, explained at a press conference that December's nor'easter likely increased the severity of the storms that would strike in February. "Through our model of snowglobe dynamics, it's clear that snow already present in the environment contributes to future storms. When snow on the ground becomes airborne, blizzard conditions typically follow."
These findings, the result of unprecedented analysis of combined geological and climatological data, may herald a breakthrough in the prediction of severe winter weather. "We hope to give communities more notice so that they can adequately prepare for these storms," said Dr. Harris. "That's the ultimate goal."
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